THE hunt for five Britons abducted in Iraq was continuing today as news emerged that troop commanders are preparing to bring home UK soldiers within a year.

One man from Cardiff and another from Llanelli are among the missing private security workers kidnapped in strife-torn Baghdad.

And negotiations to find out who kidnapped the men and where they were being held were continuing today – six days after the abduction last Tuesday.

A top aide of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has said the feared Mehdi Army was not involved although the four bodyguards and one computer expert were seized in the Sadr City suburb by a group, some of who were wearing police uniforms.

Canon Andrew White, the Anglican Church’s vicar in Baghdad, said: “We ourselves, the British Embassy and every party involved is doing all they can to find out the reality of where our friends are.

“It is very, very difficult, but we are not giving up.”

It was also reported today that the top British commander in Basra is drawing up plans to withdraw all UK troops from the region within 12 months. The plans will be presented to Gordon Brown when he becomes Prime Minister on June 27.

But Ministry of Defence sources said that although army officers were drawing up the proposals, it was unlikely that all soldiers could be withdrawn within the timescale.

There are currently 5,500 soldiers serving in the Middle East state and the proposal to withdraw them has been drawn up by Major General Jonathan Shaw, the British commander in southern Iraq.

Troop numbers have been dwindling consistently since the war began in March 2003 when there were 46,000 soldiers on the ground. The force shrank again from 7,200 soldiers after plans were put to the Commons in February. General Shaw is reported to believe now that a more substantial withdrawal than envisaged might be possible within the next 12 months.

The United States will this month complete its build-up of troops in Baghdad, adding five more brigades totalling 21,500 soldiers.

The five kidnapped Britons were all private security guards working for Canadian-owned GardaWorld, one of the biggest suppliers of bodyguards in Iraq.

Bodyguard Alec MacLachlan, 28, from Llanelli, was already known to be among the abducted men and the Echo has been asked not to identify the man from Cardiff who has been kidnapped.